When Jimmy Page Got A Pilot So Drunk That John Bonham Had To Fly The Plane Without A License

The managers of Led Zeppelin were probably so tired of chaining the band’s guitarist Jimmy Page to the toilets of the hotel room that they bought a private jet to keep him under their control. Led Zeppelin members and crew traveled by this plane named ‘The Starship’ during the band’s North American tour between 1973 and 1975. The Starship also witnessed the crazy and iconic moments of the band.

Thus ‘The Starship’ became to be known for its crazy parties including alcohol, drugs, sex, and rock and roll, which were the inseparable parts of the musical journey of the legendary band Led Zeppelin. However, the band members weren’t the only ones who had parties. The plane pilots also joined them by consuming alcohol even though they shouldn’t have done it for the sake of everyone on the plane.

Why Did John Bonham Have To Fly ‘The Starship’?

In one of Led Zeppelin’s journeys by ‘The Starship,’ the jet’s pilot was too drunk to fly it so the band’s drummer John Bonham had to become the pilot of ‘The Starship’ until they arrived in New York. Actually, Bonham neither had a pilot license nor any training about the planes, but he volunteered to fly the plane to prevent the death of everyone because of a plane crash.

Jimmy Page recalled these times saying:

“Of course there was the time we got the pilots so drunk on ‘The Starship’ that Bonham had to fly the plane from Boston to NYC. He did not have a pilot’s license. He said it was just like driving a motorcycle. He did it and we all lived to laugh about it.”

As everyone can understand from the statement of Page that John Bonham flew the plane by defining it as driving a motorcycle. Therefore, he saved everyone on the plane after its pilot had become so drunk at one of the parties of Led Zeppelin that he couldn’t do his job. Consequently, ‘The Starship’ continued to witness Led Zeppelin members’ iconic moments instead of being their cause of death thanks to Bonham’s pilot skills.